Jon sat at the table, thinking about how he wanted to handle the problems of the past few days. He glance over at Carla and Vaes, he couldn't understand what they were thinking, instituting the command code structure. Scratch that, he understood what they were thinking, just not why they went about it the way they did.
Everyone in the room was silent, waiting on Jon to say something. Thoughts ran rampant, everyone was waiting for the hammer to drop. Jon hadn't released his guards yet, Carex stood just behind Jon watching the room carefully.
"Well, First things first," Jon said, breaking the uneasy silence. "Vaes, why did you decide to institute a command code structure without approval from Bill or I?"
Vaes glanced over at Carla.
"I'm not asking Carla, I'm asking You," Jon said in a controlled voice.
Vaes face held a look of shock at the outburst; he still hadn't made an attempt to answer Jon.
"Fine, since you can't seem to answer the question, you're relieved of duty and confined to quarters. Go, get out of my sight." Jon almost yelled.
Vaes paled, "I..." his voice broke.
"I said, leave and confine yourself to quarters. Was this order not clear?" Jon said, trying to regain his composure.
Vaes stood up, saluted and left the room.
"Carla, let's try this again. Why did you decide to institute a command code structure without approval from me or Bill?" Jon asked calmly.
Everyone in the room glanced around, as Jon asked the question.
Carla answered quickly, "Security, sir."
"Security?"
"Yes sir, it was my idea, I talked Vaes into it. I wanted to add security procedures to the Station to help protect against an attack. Even the chance that one of our ships got captured and they forced the captain to gain entry."
"You know, it's a good idea, but you should have contacted me or Bill and asked permission."
"I know, it's my fault, I'm truly sorry." Carla said, hanging her head down.
"No, well yeah kind of, it's mainly Vaes' fault. He should have known better. You were in training. While that doesn't excuse a bad order, I can't lay all the blame on you. This is also my fault, for not setting down the command structure. I don't have a military back ground, I'm learning as I go. Doing the best I can, given the situation we're in." Jon looked over at Andie.
She was so weak now, thin and frail, not the happy go lucky woman he once knew. He had to get her to snap out of this depression, if not it would kill her.
"I can say one thing, that little mix up saved the station. If Bill was allowed to gather the Scythe, then leave with the small fleet, this station would be gone. So that's one thing that I'm thankful for," Jon paused for a second. "Andie, Bill died doing what he knew he had to. He died protecting you, the station, and lives of everyone here. He will be remembered, as will his crew. Your brother is a hero, our first, and as such I'm going to posthumously award him the Eutharan Medal of Victory. I'll award this to you and his widow, in ceremony, after we get all this out of the way." Jon quietly said.
Andie looked up as tears filled her eyes, she flashed him a brief smile.
"If I may," Adm. Breq said. Jon looked at him and nodded.
"Andie, on that day, I too would like to stand before you and his widow. My people and I would be honored to award him The Emperor's Shield. It's the highest medal one can achieve from the Invaru, never before awarded outside the Invaru. Without him, three Invaru ships would have been destroyed; I was on one of those ships. I have never seen anyone fight so bravely against such odds. He will always have a place of honor in our history and in my people's heart." He said.
Adm. Breq stood, followed by every Invaru in the room, bowing to Andie. Andie was weeping openly now, but smiled and returned their bow.
"M... may I be exc... used," Andie asked between sobs.
"Sure, Andie. I'll come see you later, ok?" Jon said.
"I'll be w... ith my sis... ter-in-la... w, telling her th... e goo... d ne... ws."
Jon nodded as Andie left the room.
"Deatra, could you go with her and make sure they're ok?"
Deatra nodded as she got up and followed Andie, her ever present guards in tow.
Once everyone took their seats, Jon continued, "Carla, I'm changing your posting you will serve under Gilas on the Scythe. You will learn everything he has to teach you, then we will review your performance record and go from there."
"Yes sir," Carla replied.
"One more thing I'm curious about," Jon said, turning to Breq. "What's your story?"
Breq looked around the room, carefully studying each Invaru present. Then he turned back to Jon, "It's a long story."
Jon chuckled, "I have nothing but time."
"Well, as you know I was one of the leaders of the rebellion. We had become unhappy with the way the Collective was being run. Most of us thought all beings deserved the right to live by their own customs. This wasn't allowed under the old rule, if you weren't Invaru, you were a slave. As such, you had no rights; your master could kill you for anything that displeased them. The slightest infraction or slip could, would end in your death.
A group of us decided to change this and started working quietly to occupy high ranking positions. For me this was easy, I was next inline for the throne. Others had a harder time, they had to move up and hide their affiliations."
Jon interrupted, "Excuse me for breaking in. But, why didn't you just wait to take the throne and then change things?"
Breq smiled, "No problem, I was wondering if you were going to ask that. The reason is simple, I wasn't assured the throne. I was next inline, but politics in the Collective ruled who sat on the throne."
Jon nodded.
"Anyway, this started about 20 years ago. Most of the Invaru on this station, were with the rebellion. The Wrath's Revenge, my ship, was crewed only by loyal Invaru. Illus, the guard who rescued you from the good Capt. Jodeas, is my second in command. My most trusted advisor and friend."
Jodeas blushed slightly, "Sorry about that, I was just following orders."
Jon laughed, "Let's just let the past lay behind us as we move forward."
Jodeas smiled, nodding.
Unseen, Prasuh paled as Jon said that.
"The Collective were expansionists, and that's what they did. We once controlled over 30 systems and massive fleets. That was until we met this new enemy, we call them the Yarseeh. We don't know their real name, no one who has ever been captured has escaped. We have been fighting for years, I have never seen one of their ships destroyed until now. That alone gives me and my people hope for a future. Atlantis, was the last known outpost of the Eutharans, the old Empire, not the new one. Prasuh had been ordered to secure the base or, if all else failed, destroy it and everyone on it. Seems you managed to escape, caused quite a stir too. Because now not only did we have to worry about the Yarseeh, we had to worry about a rogue Eutharan Battle Cruiser.
But, since the Collective attacked your world, the Emperor couldn't pass up the chance to build up his troops. Your people were harvested, sorry but that's the only term that fits. Turned into mindless drones and used to crew ships to help fight the war we were losing. When you returned to your world and destroyed the Il'las, you became the Emperor's prime target. You had done what had never been done before, you destroyed a Titan class vessel with a Battle Cruiser. That's when the, well you know that part of the story. Your capture and escape. I intercepted a transmission from Prasuh's ship to the Home World informing them of your capture. I moved quickly to intercept you and secure your release, even letting go of my advisor and friend to do so.
See, the rebellion knew we were going to need all the allies we could get. We already knew you had ties to the Euthara and controlled Ghost Station. That alone gave you great stock in our eyes, it made you irreplaceable. The war had already reached our inner boarders, one jump from the Home World. The rebellion had at one time hoped we could get peace if we took control of the Collective. Every envoy we sent never came back, no reply was ever issued to our requests. When they got that far into our home system, I issued orders to all of our ships to rally here. So, you can be expecting some more ships to arrive in the coming days. Prasuh and his crew started for the rally point when the order went out." Breq looked over at Prasuh.
"I got the order to retreat to the Ghost Station rally point. On my way here I had engine trouble and got attacked, I think they used some type of Hyperspace disruption field. We fought a running battle for 30 minutes, that's when I detected the Atlantis and her fleet. So I jumped to you in hopes you could help us. The rest of that you know better than I do," Prasuh said.
"Basically we jumped here, unfortunately we were followed and that's when the battle happened." Breq sat back and took a sip of his drink.
"Hrm... Interesting story, sad but interesting." Jon said. "Ghost inform CIC to be expecting more Invaru ships, They are to be allowed temporary berth, under lock down until Admiral Breq can get there to greet them."
'Yes sir, ' Ghost's voice said.
"Ok one more point of business, what happened to Atlantis?" Jon asked, looking at Mike.
"I'll let Ellie explain it, she's the one who figured it out." Mike replied, grinning at Ellie as she glared at him.
"We'll it seems like your AI has developed Emotions. She has been writing them herself." Ellie said, still glaring at Mike.
"Emotions!" Breq almost shouted.
"Yes, emotions she doesn't know how to control yet."
"Interesting..." Jon said "Can she be taught to control them, live with them?"
"You can't be serious," Breq said, a stunned look on his face.
"Absolutely, I don't treat her any different than I do one of my crew. Why should this matter?" Jon asked.
"She is a rogue AI, she must be wiped and reprogrammed. This is why we don't have AI's on board, they're too unpredictable." Breq said, calming down a bit.
"The Admiral's right, It's why we stopped using them too. That and we don't have the resources to build them any more." Gilas told Jon.
"I see that as a down fall, it's being corrected as we speak. I have already ordered the manufacturing plant to manufacture AI's for all new ships. Atlantis has saved my crew and my life many times. They're not a hindrance as far as I'm concerned." Jon said.
Breq stared at Jon, "You don't know what you're saying, she will rebel eventually."
"Not really," Ellie said. All eyes in the room turned to her.
"What do you mean?" Breq asked.
"I mean, she is already back online and performing her duties. She's already spoken to a councilor and understands, in a way, what's going on."
"ARE YOU INSANE?" Breq screamed. Ellie flinched, Rick started to get up.
"Calm down Breq, right now, that's an order." Jon said. Breq looked over at Jon his eyes betraying his fear.
"Yes sir," Breq replied as he sat back down.
"Please continue Ellie," Jon said.
"As I was saying, I disabled all of her command routines. She still has access to minor sub routines. I'll be helping Mike rewrite her core routines into something more organized. As she learns to deal with her emotions we can slowly allow her access to the higher routines."
"Will that be safe?" Jon asked her.
"As safe as can be without wiping her completely out and starting over. I have seen this dealt with before and read on how to handle. It was my main course of study, AI construction and programming. I can help Mike learn what he needs to know, we can then program the newer AI's so they can't develop emotions if you like."
Jon sat back, thinking about what he should do. He couldn't very well kill Atlantis, yet she almost killed Carla. She just didn't know the difference between right and wrong. "I think we will let her go as is for now. We'll watch her and decide what to do down the road. Have you checked Ghost?"
"Yes, and before you ask, no she hasn't." Ellie replied.
"I don't like it, but I can't see anything wrong with how you're approaching the situation. I'll reserve my final judgment until later," Breq said, crossing his arms.
"Now that that's settled, last order of business," Jon said. "then we can all go get something to eat and plan the ceremony for the lost crewmen lost in the recent battles."
All eyes once again turned to Jon as he leaned forward and looked at each of them.
He had considered where he wanted everyone for his command structure. Now he was about to make it final, they needed a solid structure so events like this never happen again.
Jon got an evil grin on his face, "The largest question of this meeting is: Are there any bathrooms in 10 forward?"
Everyone stared at him, unsure of what he meant.
"What's a 10 forward and why do we need to know this?" Prasuh asked.
Jon's eyes locked on Prasuh as he tried to keep a straight face. All the humans, Rick and Ellie included, finally caught on and started laughing.
"Goon," Was all Terri said.
The rest of the room looked at all the people laughing, not sure what they should do.
Jon finally could help it any more, he started laughing.
"I don't understand what's so funny," Breq said.
After Jon calmed down enough, he explained about 10 forward and the TV show.
Still unable to understand the question, Jon ended up explaining it in detail for the next 20 minutes.
"I still don't see why it's so funny," Breq said.
Renewed laughter filled the room as Jon gave up, "Never mind."
As Jon turned back to the task at hand, he swore he saw Breq smile.
"All right, fun's over, time to get down to the dirty. I'm appointing Admiral Breq as Second in Command, he has the most experience. Under him will be the Commander of Ghost Station, whoever that may be, then ship Captains and on down the line. There will be some exceptions to the rules, we will work those out. Right now, everyone is dismissed to get something to eat. Be back here in two hours, so we can finalize the command structure."
Everyone stood up, except Breq, and left. Jon and Breq talked for two hours while they ate. Once everyone was back and took their seat Jon started the meeting back up.
"After a lot of discussion with Admiral Breq, I have come to the conclusion that we need to seriously revamp the Command structure. All ship captains while off ship will retain their rank. All base commanders will be promoted to Colonel and we will filter down through the base personnel from there. The same will be done on the ships. The idea is to bring everyone together under one cohesive ranking system. This should eliminate the problems in communication." Jon said.
Everyone in the room agreed and discussion ensued about how to rank people under their command. Jon smiled as he watched them discussing what different ranks positions would have.
"Only one more thing left to do," Breq said standing up.
The room quieted as people stared at him.
"Oh?" Jon asked looking up at Breq.
"Well, we can't very well have a Captain running the entire Fleet and Station can we, Fleet Admiral Hunter?" Breq said smiling.
All eyes shifted to Jon, several of the faces had smiles.
Jon paled and stuttered, "Uh, no... that..."
Breq interrupted, "Can't happen. That's what you were going to say right? Good glad you agree, we can announce it at the ceremony for Bill."
Jon glared at Breq, he had been suckered and he knew it. He reached up and rubbed his forehead.
"Headache?" Breq asked Jon.
"No, I'm checking to make sure I didn't have the word sucker tattooed into my forehead while I was out." Jon responded. Deep in his heart, Jon knew Breq was right. Not that he liked the idea any more now than before.
Everyone in the room started laughing.
Jon smiled, "Live it up while you can, I know who you are and where you sleep."
Several of the Invaru stopped laughing.
Breq started laughing harder, "It was a joke." He told them.
"Oh," Jodeas said starting to laugh again.
"He hopes," Jon said grinning.